First and foremost, the trip was for us to visit family. My grandson Ryan, his wife Rachel, and their three daughters, live in Sunset Beach, just outside of Geraldton. And this was the first opportunity for Gerry and I to meet the girls. The eldest, Talullah, was born in 2022, the middle girl, Loxley, was born in 2023, and the youngest, Sunday, was born just over a month ago.
Mid morning, car packed and my daughter, Denise, took the first stint of driving, primarily to get us clear of Perth city and suburbs, but also because she knows the route like the back of her hand. Driving through the city, the traffic was quite heavy but thinned out noticeably as we headed north on the Tonkin Highway. Near Muchea, we jumped onto the Brand Highway and then with a few kilometers behind us, we made a pit stop at Cataby.
From Cataby, I took over the driving for the run-up to Eneabba. At times the road ahead, and behind us was, pretty much, empty of any traffic. Although, occasionally, we would encounter road trains thundering down the road towards us. And, of course, the ubiquitous “grey nomads” with their off-road vehicles and caravans.
One feature of our journey was the vast fields of Rape, or Canola as my daughter calls it. For clarification the term “canola” denotes a group of rapeseed cultivars that were bred to have very low levels of erucic acid which is mildly toxic.
The glorious yellow of the flowers spread across the land on either side of the road. Prior to this trip, I had only ever seen sights such as these in the UK.
At Eneabba, we stopped for a loo break and also to grab a bite for lunch. Lunch consisted of chili sausages for me, some sort of pie for Gerry, and a burger for Denise. All of us thought the fare was of mediocre standard, but it filled the void, and we had the promise of a roast dinner to look forward to.
From Eneabba its about another hour and forty five minutes drive to Geraldton and Sunset Beach. Denise resumed the driving and it seemed that in no time we had arrived in Sunset Beach.
We had booked a chalet, at the Sunset Beach Holiday Park, for the weekend. And, arriving at reception, we checked in, and were soon esconsed in our accomodation. From the outside it looks a bit like a shipping container but inside was very fresh and modern looking, with all amenities. More than we needed as we were only going to sleep, shower and brew coffee here.
And so, with car unpacked, we headed up to Ryans house where we were made to feel really welcome, greeted as we were by two very excited young girls and a small dog. The adult welcome was a little more restrained.
The next few hours were spent with the adults chinwagging, getting to know the two girls and the glamourous grandmothers taking it in turns to hold the baby. As promised, we were fed to the point of plumptiousness with a fabulous roast cooked by Ryan after which we bade our hosts a temporary farewell and headed back to our accomodation for a good nights sleep.
WrAnTz 